Tag: comments on website

More than three-quarters of Germans use the Internet in some way during their day. Research has shown that 75% of them are signed up to at least one social media network and use it for around one-quarter of their online time. Future growth is set to continue with a solid uptake from the younger generation, with 90% of 14-year-olds to 29-year-olds registered on at least one social media platform. The most popular networks are listed below according to the number of users.

Facebook

Google+

Xing

Wer-kennt-wen

LinkedIn

MySpace

Source: https://pixabay.com/en/photos/representation/

Why is Germany a laggard?

Germany is a laggard in social media compared to neighboring European countries. Compared to the UK’s 89%, Germany falls behind in social media usage. Germany ranks below the European average, with just 42% of its population regularly using social networks. The low social media usage is linked to Germany’s large aging population. The younger generation tends to be the ones that drive social media usage. Germany’s Statistisches Bundesamt reported that the number of residents aged 60 and older has risen consistently since 1950, and the number under age 20 has steadily declined.

In Germany, it is uncommon to speak to or add people one has just met via social media. The German culture does not promote the friendly social media attitude that some neighboring European countries have. In order to gain a like from a German, you really need to tailor your content so that it speaks to that particular demographic.

Another reason Germany may fall behind their European countries in Facebook usage is because Germans tend to use fake names. Although Facebook insists that users list their real names, many Germans still abbreviate or use fake names due to privacy concerns. This fixation with privacy often makes it difficult to trace and connect with people.

How to engage the German market

The German market is undeniably a tough market to tap into, however; it is a growing market with huge potential. Although the reasons above make it sound like it is difficult to advertise on social media, there are various innovative ways to do so. Tailor-made, carefully curated and highly personalized content is the way to transform an online experience into a strategy for success.

Moving from writing to voice

While there is a great deal of written communication in online media in Germany, one way to create content that stands out and has a personal touch is to turn to other mediums such as voice. Heyoya offers an innovative way to create a tailor-made online experience for users. Heyoya is a voice comments and reviews platform that helps to increase user-engagement and unique user-generated content through voice.

So how does it work?

It’s actually pretty simple: when surfing the web, users can respond to your articles, events and more by recording a voice comment or review through the Heyoya widget. You can also use Heyoya to upload your own voice content to your website. This is a great way to leave messages for your users, talk to them and hear what they have to say! Ultimately, by using the Heyoya widget, you can better leverage your comments sections to increase user engagement and create higher quality content, keeping users on your site for longer.

Heyoya is a game-changing comments and reviews platform that brings voice to e-publishers and e-stores. Heyoya’s new Receiver plan allows for quick and easy below-the-fold monetization.For more information about Heyoya, or to start using Heyoya’s Receiver plan and start earning money today, click here.

The biggest friction point (58% of consumers agree) is when you think you’re buying a product for a certain price but when you reach the checkout point, the shipping and VAT kick in and suddenly your purchase is much more expensive than what you intended. This relates to the issue of trust. More money equals more anxiety and anxiety equals mistrust, friction and cart abandonment. So, how do we fix this? Simple. Write the total amount from the start or as early in the process as possible! Consumers prefer honesty than to think they’ve been tricked into choosing a specific product.

Security is key

Anxiety, which leads to friction points, can be caused by several reasons; the shoppers don’t have a sense of security, they may not be receiving enough information or perhaps it’s just because the UX isn’t smooth enough and makes them feel edgy. Let’s take a moment to talk about security. For example, consumers will feel more secure if the payment is done through a company they know and trust such as Paypal (and while you’re at it, add a few more options), as opposed to writing in their card details and hoping the site is secure. Focusing on communicating how secure your checkout is, is crucial. Besides using Paypal, another way to instill trust is to add a Google certified shop badge. This way an e-commerce merchant endorsement that shows that Google “identifies and stands behind stores that provide a consistently great shopping experience” and we all (well most of us) trust Google.

It’s all about timing

Here’s another little tip, at the checkout point, add a phone number to contact. You’ll be surprised how many buyers, especially new ones, have questions at checkout and if you’ll be available you just might be sidestepping another friction point and saving a lot of potential cart abandonments. Though having a live person available would be the optimal situation, it’s not always possible. Thankfully, a trend that will be growing strong this year are the chatbots, and when placed strategically at checkout they can offer the consumers the answers they need, reassuring the customer that he or she can trust the process.

Reviews everywhere

Another way to ensure trust is reviews. Sometimes on websites, users may be skeptical as to whether the reviews are real as are the users writing them. If all reviews are superb it also may cause mistrust as opposed to if there is a healthy mix of reviews with mostly satisfied customers while still having a few that were less so. Using voice in reviews can make them much more trustworthy since the consumer gets a real sense of the buyer’s opinions. Credibility is key and that’s why a lot of companies display the reviews in a central location on the home page as well as the specific product page. Another tip is to have the reviews in the checkout section as well. This way there is direct context and positive reviews to give them the boost to checkout. If you’re missing any of the above on your website, you’ve got some work to do.

Heyoya is a game-changing comments and reviews platform that brings voice to e-publishers and e-stores, improving sales and user engagement by allowing readers to express themselves beyond the medium of text. Heyoya’s new Receiver plan allows for quick and easy below-the-fold monetization. Heyoya is a game changer for websites and is proven to increase brand affinity and the quality of user-generated content.

For more information about Heyoya, or to start using Heyoya’s Receiver plan and start earning money today, click here.

SEO refers to search engine optimization and covers all the technical and creative elements involved in improving site rankings and driving traffic to your website. This includes a lot of different things, from generating consistently great content, to the ways in which you structure your website and the links you include in it. Over the years, SEO has been evolving in more sophisticated and interesting directions, and today, the trends of voice content and voice searches are set to further change the world of SEO.

The evolution of SEO

There have been tons of changes in the world of SEO. Once, SEO was all about cramming in the correct keywords into a web page or blog. If you were an air-conditioning salesperson than you can bet the word air-conditioning would have featured roughly one thousand times in every sentence. Keywords were very much at the center of things. However, over time, search engine algorithms have become much more sophisticated and have learned to favor more natural types of speech. When Google released Hummingbird in 2013, it moved SEO towards more conversational content. In 2016, search engine algorithms have gone further, and content that is longer and more in depth tends to do better. Content with photos also consistently outperforms text-based content, and backlinks remain essential.

It is not just text and images that are rapidly changing the world of SEO. The increasing popularity of voice search means that today over 20% of mobile queries are voice searches. These kinds of searches are based on questions rather than keywords, and they are changing SEO. For one thing, content that is conversational or that answers questions (think FAQ style) are performing well. It’s also likely that instant answers will become more popular and feature as the response for a greater number of voice-based queries. However, this doesn’t mean that we should stop paying attention to typed searches. At the moment, a whopping 80% of all mobile searches are still text-based.

Voice content also changes things

Web site and blog content tend to be a mixture of text, video, and images. And while video and image content is incredibly important, and proven to help with SEO, audio-based content is the one to watch in 2016. The fact that people are using voice assistants more and more frequently suggests that the importance of voice content is also increasing. If you can’t look at your screen and can only voice search, then it’s reasonable to assume there are many times when audio content would be preferable to content that forces you to stare at your phone or laptop. And, as voice and speech analytics continues to improve it is only a matter of time before keywords and phrases in voice become an essential part of SEO.

Heyoya is a game-changing comments and reviews platform that brings voice to e-publishers and e-stores, improving sales and user engagement by allowing readers to express themselves beyond the medium of text. Heyoya’s new Receiver plan allows for quick and easy below-the-fold monetization. Heyoya is a game changer for websites and is proven to increase brand affinity and the quality of user-generated content.

For more information about Heyoya, or to start using Heyoya’s Receiver plan and start earning money today, click here.

Disruptive innovation is a term coined by Clayton Christensen back in 1995 that describes the way a new technology enters, disrupts and fundamentally changes a market. The concept has gained traction in recent years and describes common market patterns. As incumbents in various arenas focus on their core market and on creating and refining ever better technologies (and ones that their customers may not in fact need), they leave the market open to other newer companies that are able to swoop in and disrupt the market with business models that appeal to a different target market, include a different technology or have lower margins.

There are countless examples of fledgling companies, innovators and entrepreneurs who have swooped in and fundamentally changed existing markets. One great example is SodaStream who changed the beverage category. In an arena ruled by giants like Coca-Cola and Pepsi, creating a new soft drink and gaining market share is extremely challenging. Among other things, this is connecting to the bottling factories, which are either owned by or in partnership deals with the incumbents. On the other hand, building an entire bottling plant from scratch is an incredibly expensive capital expenditure, which has the risk of never yielding good returns. To solve this problem, SodaStream essentially eliminated the need for bottles by allowing you to create the soda you want yourself, in your own home. This has fundamentally changed the way we purchase and consume soft drinks.

Digital disruption

In 2016 in particular, much of the disruptive innovation that has taken place has been in the digital realm. New digital technologies are not just disrupting tech giants, they are also radically transforming traditional arenas of business such as agriculture, health care, manufacturing and even government. Of course, not all of this is restricted to online innovations. In many instances, radical disruption of existing industries occurs in the nexus of the digital world with the world of hardware, or in other words, the Internet of Things. But in some cases, the digital world is learning to reinvent some of the constants and behaviors that we have come to take for granted.

Voice is disrupting industries

Voice technologies are transforming digital worlds by giving us voice assistants, voice-activated driving and now voice based comments and reviews platforms. One of the more traditional and unchanging aspects of websites and e-stores has long been the comments and reviews sections. This is something that was integrated into web platforms years ago, but it is only in recent years that the importance of user-generated content as a marketing channel has been fully understood. And it is now that new technologies are rethinking the way reviews and comments are created and the very platforms that support them. With comments and reviews, the focus has long been on text-based user testimonials and ideas, but all this is finally shifting towards voice.

Heyoya is a game-changing comments and reviews platform that brings voice to e-publishers and e-stores, improving sales and user engagement by allowing readers to express themselves beyond the medium of text. Heyoya’s new Receiver plan allows for quick and easy below-the-fold monetization. Heyoya is a game changer for websites and is proven to increase brand affinity and the quality of user-generated content.

For more information about Heyoya, or to start using Heyoya’s Receiver plan and start earning money today, click here.

While the future is full of menacing potential policies and vast uncertainties, the past is full of disappointment for Hilary’s supporters, many of whom are struggling to get to drips with what just happened. Today is the 5th day of Trump protests across the nation and the purpose of these protests is not just a protest against Trump but a movement of solidarity for immigrants and others that Trump’s presidency may well negatively impact. And though the future is still unknown, a lot of people have a lot to say about things. Now more than ever, there is a huge amount of speculation on what will really be the outcome of this new President Elect. And whether you love, hate or are downright fearful of Trump’s impact on the US, the media needs to provide not just information but a safe space for debate. If you are a blogger or content provider, it’s critical – now more than ever – to foster the right environment for discussion.

Build a meaningful discussion

The key to creating a discussion is to build a meaningful rather than a toxic dialogue and this can be tricky. Curtailing one-sidedness and learning to engage in emotional dialogue are a good place to start. To do this online, you need the right tools. While pretty much every blog and website come with a comments section, this traditional text-based mode of communicating may actually be doing more harm than good. When we write online it is inherently ambiguous because we are losing so much of the personal aspect of communication that is part of the tone of voice and body language. Of course, it is impossible to truly bring all of this to the online world at the moment (maybe in future we will all be communicating through VR avatars and things will change). But for now, it is worth exploring voice comments and reviews, a far more direct and personal way to let your readers express their election opinions.

Heyoya is a game-changing comment and reviews platform that brings voice to e-publishers and e-stores, improving sales and user engagement by allowing readers to express themselves beyond the medium of text. Heyoya’s new Receiver plan allows for quick and easy below-the-fold monetization. Heyoya is a game changer for websites and is proven to increase brand affinity and the quality of user-generated content.

For more information about Heyoya, or to start using Heyoya’s Receiver plan and start earning money today, click here.

While the major operating systems of Android and iOS have had varying levels of voice command for quite some time, many apps have lagged behind with only written and visual inputs and outputs. But little by little all of that seems set to change as an increasing number of apps go hands-free. Last month, Google Maps finally launched its long overdue voice feature. This is especially helpful for drivers who can now find gas stations or change their routes while they are driving without having to pull over to type, or even worse, type and drive. And according to research, you are 23 times more likely to have an accident while texting, and texting while driving accounts for over 1,600,000 accidents per year in the US alone. Hopefully, the increasing move towards hands-free voice technology will help to reduce these awful statistics.

Source: technewstoday.com

And it’s not just Google Maps that is changing the world with voice. Google’s Voice Access app allows users to completely control their phone with voice. Google has really jumped on the voice trend in a big way, and this technology, in particular, helps people with motor impairments navigate their touch screens. It still hasn’t officially released, so Google is still busy ironing out bugs, but it looks set to be a transformative technology for users who otherwise have difficulty manipulating touch screens and handheld devices.

And while Siri still runs the show on Apple, there are plenty of great Android alternatives out there. Voice assistants can really transform how you use your device, and once again, Google has a strong presence in this field with Google Now. It is reportedly one of the best voice assistants on the market and has a wide range of features and continuous updates from Google. Microsoft’s voice assistant is Cortana, another popular choice for Android users, which integrates well between PCs and handheld devices and can basically do anything a real assistant can do (ok, maybe not everything). And there are many more options out there.

All in all, voice technology is changing the way we do almost everything. In future, we may never even touch the devices we use, once everything is seamlessly activated across devices and platforms with easy-to-use voice commands. Voice activation is definitely the new wave of technology and has already been adopted and heavily invested in by all the tech giants. And, while voice accuracy is still never 100%, the stats are rapidly improving. In fact, Google, China-based Baidu, and startup Hound are already achieving around 90% accuracy. So if you haven’t started using voice, now is the time to transform the way you work and start to join the hands-free revolution.

Heyoya is a game-changing comment and reviews platform that brings voice to e-publishers and e-stores, improving sales and user engagement by allowing readers to express themselves beyond the medium of text. Heyoya’s new Receiver plan allows for quick and easy below-the-fold monetization. Heyoya is a game changer for websites and is proven to increase brand affinity and the quality of user-generated content.

For more information about Heyoya, or to start using Heyoya’s Receiver plan and start earning money today, click here.

What started with Siri has expanded to other technologies like the Amazon Echo and Google Home in the smart home sphere, and personal assistant alternatives like Cortina, Viv and others. With a multitude of voice services on the marketing, different platforms are competing on functionality, breadth of knowledge, usability across devices and more. One of Siri’s issues has been its stark absence on Mac over the past few years, but thankfully that has all changed with the launch of Sierra. In any case, one thing is clear; as more people transition to using voice services and platforms, an increasing amount of voice content is being created. And this changes the digital marketing landscape and the way in which people search for and view content. As voice becomes increasingly popular as a form of media, so does voice search.

Source: medium.com

A change in the essence of search

With word searches, people have become used to typing in key words to find the content they are looking for. Marketers have based much of their content strategy on this and finding very niche goods or products have more often than not been a question of typing in the right key words. With voice, the way people search is different. Instead of honing into the key questions, voice searches are more conversational, largely based on full questions, and more reminiscent of what you would ask a real-life personal assistant. According to research the occurrence of the words “who” “what” and “how” in searches has increased 61% in the past year.

Marketing needs to be more conversational

This dramatic change in the way people are searching necessitates a change in the way brands, products, and services are marketed. In order to capture an audience that is searching for colloquial questions, your content must be of a kind that addresses those questions and does it in a conversational way rather than exclusively through key words and meta tags. And while it is always necessary to do customer research and build your marketing in a way that taps into your key audiences, in 2016 it might be worth researching the kinds of questions your target audience are asking. Ideally, your sites and blogs should be based on both traditional SEO keywords and semantic voice relevance (ie. voice-based questions and context).

Increase voice-based content

While voice searches are mostly throwing up text-based content, with the increasing improvements in voice analytics it won’t be long before voice searches find voice-based content. To stay ahead of the trend and keep users on your site for longer, it is already worthwhile incorporating voice content into your website or blog. This can start out with something simple like voice snippets of your bio on your blog or a voice pitch of your best selling product. Ultimately, though, one of the best types of content is the user-generated kind, which is always perceived to be much more authentic than brand generated advertising and content. To harness both the voice and user-generated content trends, it’s worth exploring the world of voice comments and reviews.

Heyoya is a game-changing comment and reviews platform that brings voice to e-publishers and e-stores, improving sales and user engagement by allowing readers to express themselves beyond the medium of text. Heyoya’s new Receiver plan allows for quick and easy below-the-fold monetization. Heyoya is a game changer for websites and is proven to increase brand affinity and the quality of user-generated content.

It’s surprising how many time businesses in 2016 fail to bring together the correct components to build a comprehensive marketing strategy. The world today is still full of companies that build and fall in love with magical technologies without giving enough thought to how they will bring those technologies to customers. Similarly, there are still too many companies out there that see marketing as a potentially dispensable part of their business strategy to be added on only after the rest is done and dusted. So, what can you do to build the kind of marketing strategy needed to get your business to the top?

Bottom up research

The bottom line is, to be successful you cannot use the old philosophy, “if you build it they will come”, and in fact, marketing always needs to come first and foremost. The best businesses begin with bottom-up research (Professor Danny Warshay of Brown & Yale has a whole bunch of amazing talks on this). This means starting with your customers and really working to listen and understand their needs. This research is the number 1 step of any good marketers toolkit because you cannot proceed further without a base of knowledge and understanding. As well researching and speaking to your potential customers and understanding their behaviors, it is important to get a clear understanding of the industry you are entering, the current solutions and your competition.

Set reasonable goals

Are you psyched up after doing some wonderful research, have you built an in-depth understanding of your user base? Are you ready to charge into some marketing? Hold on just a second; it is time to step back and set some realistic goals. What are you actually aiming towards? What is a conservative estimate? What’s an optimistic estimate? It’s ok if you don’t meet each of your goals word for word in exactly the timeline you’ve set out, but it is important to have something to reach towards.

Find the right marketing mix

Once you have your research and goals in place, it is important to find the right marketing mix for your business. Sadly there are no simple answers here, so it is really a question of finding the tailor-made solution that works best for you. It might be that content campaigns are your best friend, or perhaps advertising banners on specific websites are the only real way to engage your target audience. Then again, maybe a few key strategic partners can get you more bang for your buck. There is probably no single channel that will meet all your goals, so the real question here is how to strike the right balance. Part of this will come through intuition and logic, but part will likely have some element of a trial and error.

Be flexible

Your customers and your industry will change over time. New competitors will enter the market and old ones will pivot or disappear. There are no static processes. You will need to keep your eye on the constant state of flux and quite possibly redo parts of your research or change your overall goals. At a certain point, you tried and tested marketing mix may no longer work as new technologies and ideas hit the market. In order to stay on top of things, you will need to stay agile and keep a close eye on industry changes. And don’t be afraid to try new tools and new technologies.

Heyoya is a unique comment and reviews platform that brings voice to e-publishers and e-stores, improving sales and user engagement by allowing readers to express themselves beyond the medium of text. Heyoya’s new Receiver plan allows for quick and easy below-the-fold monetization. Heyoya is a game changer for websites and is proven to increase brand affinity and the quality of user-generated content.

If you have an online blog or website, you likely already have some sort of comments platform where readers can write their thoughts and opinions. But having a comments section somewhere down at the bottom of your blog is not enough. It’s time to leverage your comments section because it is actually one of the most important parts of your blog. Here are a few reasons why it’s so important and a few ideas for how to get the maximum from your readers.

Comments keep users on your blog for longer

There’s nothing like a few juicy comments to retain your reader’s attention and keep people on your site for longer. However good your blog is, if there is no debate around it, it is likely people who visit your site will simply leave once they’ve read the blog (or section of the blog) that interests them. An active comments section creates interest and means readers are more likely to convert and more likely to click related links to ads and content. A great way to make sure your comment section kicks off to a good start is to write the first comment yourself. Make sure that it is meaningful and more than just a handful of words. Alternatively, you can include a call to action at the bottom of your blog post. This can be something very simple, like asking your readers directly to write their opinions in your comment section.

Comments make things social

Having an active comments section where users frequently talk to each other is essential to creating a blog that is both dynamic and social. With enough activity on your blog, you also increase the backlinks to other websites and by doing so improve your SEO. So ultimately, comments help drive traffic to your blog and are therefore indispensable. If you are having trouble getting a conversation rolling and are stuck with a few isolated comments, you can start by replying to your user comments. The best approach is a simple one, so trying something personal and honest is a great start. A good approach might just be to thank them for commenting and ask a short question that relates to their comment.

There is a comment revolution in progress

If you’ve been on the internet any time recently you are probably all too familiar with a world of comments that is almost exclusively text-based. Ok, now and again a handful of emojis will appear, and of course, sometimes, entire comment streams will be based purely on memes (there are even entire wiki how’s explaining how best to use memes). But still, overall, comment platforms remain surprisingly traditional. However, things are finally starting to change and a number of comment widgets and platforms have recently appeared that go beyond text and venture into the worlds of images, videos, and even voice. A great way to truly leverage your comments section is to do something unique with it.

Heyoya is a unique comment and reviews platform that brings voice to e-publishers and e-stores, improving sales and user engagement by allowing readers to express themselves beyond the medium of text. Heyoya’s new Receiver plan allows for quick and easy below-the-fold monetization. Heyoya is a game changer for websites and is proven to increase brand affinity and the quality of user-generated content.